On Assignment
RIFLE FIRE AND RICOCHETS ended
Tim Severin's first venture into explora
tion. In 1961, with two companions, he set out
to trace Marco Polo by motorcycle from Venice
to China.
"In northern Afghanistan shots
erupted," he relates, "so we turned south to the
Khyber Pass and went on to Calcutta. One of
our two motorcycles had broken, so there were
three of us on one bloody bike for 1,500 miles."
The journey produced the first of seven
books written by the Oxford graduate. No
armchair follower of explorers, Severin sailed
a leather-and-wood boat from Ireland to New
foundland in the legendary wake of St. Bren
dan, a sixth-century Irish monk reputed to
have reached the New World (GEOGRAPHIC,
December 1977). And in 1980 he weighed an
chor in pursuit of Sindbad the Sailor.
TIM SEVERIN BY BRUCE FOSTER
FRICAN WANDERLUST has led photo
journalists Michael and Aubine Kirtley
from nomads' tents to the treasure-filled pal
ace of Ivory Coast President Felix Houphouet
Boigny (left). Before the Kirtleys met in 1973,
Michael-a native of Kentucky-had crossed
North America, Europe, and Africa-hitch
hiking some 300,000 miles on the three conti
nents. As the daughter of a French cavalry
officer, Paris-born Aubine spent many of her
younger years in the dusty outposts of colonial
Algeria.
Since their first published work, "The Ina
dan, Artisans of the Sahara," appeared in the
August 1979 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, the
Kirtleys-traveling now with two children
have had a rare personal interview with
Libya's Muammar Qaddafi and taken one of
the few photographs of Billy Carter on his
1979 visit. Their children's presence has
opened doors, but also brought crises. Unwary
on a jungle stroll, five-year-old Tercelin was
attacked by driver ants that bit Aubine severe
ly as she frantically pulled them off her son.
Among the Ivory Coast's We tribe, three
year-old Ariane became the apple of a "danc
ing mask's" eye; he carried her off to adopt her.
"How do you react to this?" Michael won
dered. The solution: a $15 ransom.
MICHAELAND AUBINE KIRTLEY